14ON THE TRACK OF, ULYSSES. From this time Corcyra was the base of the Roman militarymovements against the Levantine enemies of the republic.The commanding position of the island has, from that day tothis, made it an object of the covetousness of all the mari¬time powers of the Mediterranean by turns. In the civil warsof Rome, the island espoused the part of Pompey, later of Brutus and Cassius, and then, ahvays unfortunate, of An¬ tony. After the battle of Ac- tium, fought almost Avithin sight of its shores, Corcyra was besieged, taken, and rigorouslypunished by Augustus, and then relegated to an obscurity outof Avhich only the great Ottoman invasion of Europe broughtit. It Avas involved more or less in the Saracenic, Bulgarian,Norman, and Neapolitan Avars and invasions, and finally threwitself into the arms of Venice to save itself from conquest byGenoa. From this time (1.386) the history of Corcyra, becomeCorfu, until the overthrow of the republic by Napoleon, is iden¬tified with that of Venice, and all the remains or structuresin the island date from the Venetian occupation.